Résumés
Résumé
Cette lecture-spectature intermédiale du film News from Home (1977) de Chantal Akerman propose de penser le trajet de la lettre (de la mère à la fille, de l’écrit à la lecture, du papier à l’écran) et ses différentes médiations en considérant l’échange épistolaire comme lieu intime de confidence et de confiance, mais aussi d’inquiétude, d’incertitude puisque si le telos des lettres est d’abolir la distance entre mère et fille, la transaction qu’elles instaurent intensifie paradoxalement le poids de l’absence (Foucart, 2018). À la lumière des réflexions de Jacques Lacan, Michela Marzano et Jacques Derrida, j’aborderai d’abord les connexions intersubjectives et la relation de confiance qu’établissent la correspondance et sa médiation filmique. Je m’intéresserai ensuite aux enjeux de mémoire et d’héritage que soulève le devenir-public des lettres en dialoguant avec la notion de « secret » développée par la psychanalyste Anne Dufourmantelle dans son essai Défense du secret (2015).
Abstract
This essay, at the crossroad of cinema, philosophy, and literature, emerges from an interdisciplinary reading of News from Home (1977) by Belgian cinematographer Chantal Akerman. By focusing on the journey of the letter (from mother to daughter, from writing to reading, from paper to screen) and its different mediations—this essay addresses the intersubjective connections (Derrida, Lacan) and the relationship of trust (Marzano, Foucart) established by the correspondence and its filmic mediation. Commonly considered as an intimate place of confidence and trust, the epistolary exchange, as portrayed in Akerman’s film, is also imbued with anxiety and uncertainty: although the telos of the letters is to abolish the distance between mother and daughter, we shall see that the transaction they establish paradoxically intensifies the weight of absence (Foucart, 2018). Considering the letter as a means of relaying subjectivities, this article will further study how the combination of specific sounds—city sounds, Akerman’s voice, silences—and images—static shots of empty streets, crowded boulevards—allow the director to represent her and her mother’s subjectivity, conveying two spatial and temporal realities at the same time. Such reflections lead us to conclude by questioning the issues of memory and inheritance raised by the public becoming of the letters in dialogue with the notion of “secret” developed by the psychoanalyst Anne Dufourmantelle in her essay Défense du secret (2015).